External fixation devices have been used to treat bone and tissue conditions by positioning bone or tissue segments in desired relative positions based on particular clinical needs. One form of external fixation devices is a unilateral or mono-lateral rail based fixation device. These devices are typically comprised of a beam element serving as the structural backbone of the device, along which are slidably attached clamp assemblies that can accept fixation elements such as bone fixation pins or wires. In some embodiments, these clamp assemblies have the ability to be statically locked to the beam element or dynamically driven or translated axially along the beam element. In some embodiments, the clamp assemblies can be rotated about the beam element or angulated relative to the axis of the beam element.
When configured as bone or tissue fixation systems, unilateral fixation systems typically include a multitude of clamp assemblies. In the most basic configurations, there is one static clamp assembly and one drivable clamp assembly coupled to the beam element. In some embodiments, the beam element and the clamp assemblies arranged in this way can be connected to a second beam and clamp assembly through the use of a joint element having 1 or more degrees of freedom, such as a hinge having 1 degree of freedom to a spherical or cardan joint having 3 degrees of freedom. In more complicated configurations, it is sometimes desirable to be able to drive multiple clamp assemblies independently along the beam element such that multiple bone segments can be manipulated thereby. When affixing clamp assemblies to the fixation elements coupled to corresponding bone segments, it is also at times desirable to be able to quickly arrange the clamp assemblies along the beam element. Current unilateral external bone fixation systems do not aloe for such gross and/or quick translation of the clamp assemblies along the beam element, at least without adding or removing parts of the clamp assemblies and/or beam element. Given the small size of many unilateral external bone fixation systems utilized with relatively small bones (e.g., bones of the foot, hand or the like), adding or removing parts of the clamp assemblies and/or beam element can be cumbersome and/or time consuming.
External bone fixation systems with compact, clutch-able, self-contained mechanisms that allows for the rapid buildup and placement of clamp assemblies along the length of a beam element in a variety of positions and angulations to facilitate optimal fixation to bone elements (and thereby corresponding bones or bone segments) is therefore desirable.